A tree that big would also probably help prevent flooding. Imaging how much water the tree would draw from the ground, up the trunk and out of the leaves every day. Probably enough to prevent flooding of the hollow it was present in.
Darn you beat me to it, that's exactly my thoughts, how much water does it take to create a tree of such magnitude. I hope he touches up on this in the next video when he talks about what he thinks this tree was.
Yes, agree completely, the tree took up all the water that now is collecting in the pool. Also the ground/ earth surrounding it gives rathervaway, that it is not super solid and stable. I believe the houses and other stuff collapsed into the center towards the tree. The sheer static weight of the tree, plus constant raining and eventually the water gathering up as a pool arround it, must have losened up the soil in the end, creating that crater and collapsing of stuff. I strongly believe that Hylians found that tree and chopped it of and made a settlement/ wood mill factory. Disregarding how they would affect the nature until the place collapsed. I think that this place shows how greedy and egotistical the people have been and paying for their overexploitation.
You do know that Lon Lon Ranch was probably tended to and remade, remodeled, etc. The ranch, over time, would obviously be ruined, worn, so it would have to be remodeled multiple times. Who says this is the original Lon Lon Ranch?
@@vetlestyve3571 I agree. I meant it as the same location as the original, just different fencing, houses, but maybe the large stone building could be the same. Stone structures, if built a certain way, can last for potentially over a thousand or more years.
Tod add to this, even if they keep the exact same lay out, wood can be replaced and if properly maintained and sealed can last hundreds or even of years (so long enough to at least last from the beginning of the calamity to the actual game events) (also an example of wood being much more durable than you'd think; there was a ship called the Mary Rose that was completed in 1512 and it went down during a battle in 1545 (so some of it was destroyed) and they discovered its remains in like the 70s and raised it from the seafloor in the 80s and its still around to this day... meaning its over 500 years old. its actually really cool...)
@@Kidgib5 I recommend Rinkuto videos (in French but production quality is great and theories are awesome). And Zeltik but he is well known :) (and a few smaller ones as well).
Angel Hernandez Vega - Lumber jacks- don’t worry deku tree it won’t hurt much Deku tree-*nervous* umm Zelda Please come and get these guy, they making me nervous😬
Waht the stump. Personally, I think the ancient stump was used as a lookout post for that small village. Because it's in a basin, there was no way for the residents to see possible invaders. The ancient stump was the perfect lookout post, plus there's a house built close to the bridge!
I personally think it's part of the Great Deku Tree family since The Stump if it was a fully grown tree could be as big or at least at a similar height to The Great Deku Tree in BOTW. The only Tree of that size that I've seen at least.
Maybe not that exactly, but perhaps it destroyed the primary drainage(if natural evaporation from the tree's leaves wasn't enough). The building(and especially its floor) does look pretty intact for having fallen down a hill.
When trees die the ground around them tends to sink due to root death, we tend not to notice this as they usually fall over. Hope one day we get answers, love this kind of stuff, thank you!
I always thought that the tree was a reference to The Windwaker: The tree represents the Deku Tree from that game, the thin trees surrounding it represent the Korok, and the house underwater represents the flooded Hyrule.
I thought so too, but the Deku tree is alive and well in BOTW, what surprises me even more is that this stump appears to be almost as big, if not bigger, than the Deku tree
I like theories like this. They don't try to theorize about something everyone already knew and theorized about, and it doesn't try to shoehorn it into being related to something else in the franchise. Just the small things, with interesting details and history. I urge you not to talk about how it may be connected to a Deku tree, etc., to keep that bliss and individual quality.
If you take a broken section of fence down and replace it with a new section that matches the old is it really a new fence? Even after you've done this enough times that the entire fence is made out of new material. I'm thinking that but the entire Ranch
@@lanasmith4795 Theseus's fence. But yeah i agree its not technically the same fence as Ocarina of Time, its just been repaired, replaced, or rebuilt in a near identical layout until 100 years earlier when the inhabitants were killed. The more mysterious thing is the trees that didn't grow at all in 100 years, looking in the present identically to as they were 100 years earlier in the memories.
It could of been Lon Lon ranch was the place the royal family breed their horses (like epona) And over thousands of years, that places purpose was just for that and kept it around. Ezy pzy
I watched a video (I cant remember what channel) that said it was the place where demise broke open the earth to call forth his army before skyward sword. Or it was at least named after it.
Demise came from a hole in the ground in skyward sword. Demise was the imprisoned who came from the pit under the peg/stake in the ground in the Faron Woods. That spot was a breach of the seal the goddess put in place to keep him at bay.
Destiny Leonard the peg/stake area in skyward sword isn’t where demise came from. Remember that when demise appeared the great statue of the goddess hylia (and the second part of the sealed temple) used to be where the stake/peg that imprisoned him is so he couldn’t have come out of there
@@thomaswoodenrailwayjourneys It's probably Deya Village they are talking about, if you trek towards the twin peaks from the plateau and take a left just before you reach that mountain you'll end up in Deya Village ruins, it's a shallow lake and there are two giant fallen trees there where most of them have rotted away.
It could be that in ancient times there were lots of huge trees but due to the growing population they cut them down for resources and to make space for more settlements.
A couple comments to make: Regarding the ranch ruins, while not the focus of the video: aside from the Sheikah, over the course of 10,000 years, Hyrule has not advanced at all in technology or anything like that, including architecture. They have the same kinds of buildings now as they did in Skyward Sword. So while in real life, old buildings would get torn down and replaced with more modern ones, its quite possible that Lon Lon Ranch was maintained and rebuilt with the same architecture. Replace old logs and wood fences over time, maintain stone buildings, rebuild anything that is destroyed by disaster or weather. By looks, it would be the exact same thousands of years later. But at its heart, its like the ship paradox. Its the same ranch, but made from new wood and stone and such. Because of a lack of architectural advancements, it just requires the family line to never die out, for the ranch to stay running by new generations all the time. And being in ruins, we can't actually see how much has changed, we just recognize what's the same. A wood fence being there 10,000 years later isn't all that unlikely in a world like Hyrule, as long as you realize that its not the exact same pieces of wood. As for the lake surrounding the tree: considering the lack of ruins where the sand and rubble blockage is, it seems more likely to me that it was intentional, to dam the water and create a lake, flooding ruins or abandoned structures already there. Why would they do that? Hard to say. But the lack of Guardians and large ruins where the blockage lies suggests it wasn't caused by a building collapsing when the Calamity returned a hundred years ago. Look at other, similar ruined structures for what I mean. Building sand could be there intentionally as a dam as well
Your going to harp of the fact the ranch ruins look like lon lon ranch but just going to ignore the fact that Eventide Island is just Koholint island with the nightmare structures cut off right? Cuz that seems more ..... significant.
I think that the Ocarina of Time great deku tree was chopped down which left its remains as the Ancient Tree Stump. But, the great deku tree is in the Korok Forest, so that means that it isnt the remains of the great deku tree from OoT. Maybe the trees surrounding the stump was once the Kokiri Forest?
@aidangallantyt I don’t think the giant tree is the Great Deku Tree from OoT because, as MNB stated, the giant tree is still somewhat alive, whereas we watch the Great Deku Tree die completely in OoT. But I could be wrong, there could’ve been another or many other GDTs who lived in different areas in Hyrule between the events of the two games, as StuffZ said.
There is a real life phenomenon called forest migration. Where over centuries and millennia, entire forests can migrate from one area to a completely different area. Some studies have shown that a forest can migrate hundreds or thousands of miles over extended periods of time. However, I don't think it likely that the stump is the remains of a Deku tree. The Great Deku Tree may be the single largest, but it is not the only giant tree to be found in Hyrule. I think it most likely that the stump is a giant tree, just not of the Deku variety.
That's obviously The Beanstalk that was cut so the giants wouldn't come down from the clouds and the houses were little Jack relatives waiting for his return.
I just figured the individual parts of the ranch had been replaced over the years as it was a working ranch until the Calamity 100 years ago and not that each fence post was 10,000 years old. But, it's amazing that the developers put construction sand around an old tree to give eagle-eyed gamers and theorists something else to look at and think about. Very interesting video.🙂
I was listening to the song 'Wannabe' when I got the notification for this video, and I was like: I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna I really really really wanna watch a new zelda theory Yep, that's how I look at things.
now that I've seen this video another question came into my mind, did anyone ever cover a theory about how a decu tree "gets born" and if not, could you make one?
I'm ocarina of time, once you become and adult and you revisit the dead great deku tree, there is a baby deku tree next to it. It came from one of the seeds that the tree dropped. So, we can assume that they come from other/previous deku trees. The only problem with this is how do the locations vary between games? I may be mistaken, however, as I have not played it in a while
@@stuffz1757 the Skyview spring is the spring of power, meaning long ago faron woods extended aaaaall the way to akalla. If you look at the actual map of Skyward sword, the skyview temple stands where the akalla region is
I am no expert on trees, but I don't remember ever having heard or witnessed cut down trees grow. Would be pretty great to see big big trees covering the Hyrule fantasy tho.
Yeah we should get a second theory for this and speculate as to what this massive tree really was and why it stood out from the rest of the surrounding area and its trees. And also I think there should have been an added detail that because the tree was probably so huge, its large branches and tree limbs stemming from the top probably covered the basin area around it like a massive umbrella, preventing the rainwater from filling up the bowl surface.
I just assumed that the ranch kept existing and being rebuilt more or less the same. It was a functioning business in a good location and assuming there was a new person to hand it down to, be it child or loyal employee or whatever, it could have lasted. That wasn't the same buildings from OOT, they where just rebuilt in the same location whenever they got doo run down or destroyed.
I think it goes back to where you started with "Nintendo threw in all these random landmarks from the past" this is a throwback to the first dungeon in the first game.
I think that tree is a Maku tree, at Oracle of Seasons, the Maku tree helps Link to restore the seasons back, but then Holodrum is destroyed or flooded then the hylians took it as territory.
Couldn’t help but notice the settlement nearby is called “Rauru Settlement Ruins” which meant nothing to me in BOTW but with TOTK it’s making me wonder why it’s named after Rauru.
I like to imagine that the years on hyrule are shorter than here on earth, beacouse we hadn't even discoverd iron 10000 years ago, it sort of explains the weird timing withing the world of zelda.
You figured this out so well this video is so entertaining I was curious about how you can make a 11 minute video about a tree stump. But it was deeper than I thought!
Just wanna say this, when you said the thing that bothered you a lot I thought you meant the weird house under the water not leaves Edit: OMG MULTIPLE LIKES
i wondered if it was one of the deku tree generations. Given that they have grown in other places with the forest. If maybe in some more recent 10,000 years. One grew there and the forest spirits having developed further with the people. Took a more adult form to blend in and lived with the people to a degree, but when the tree passed. The seed flew or was transported to the deepest thicket of woods that now became the lost woods and the deku's people left. The tree lay dormant for some years. Till as you said people found it and began harvesting it. Or a stray guardian beam sliced through it and the energy of the beam rattled the tree awake and it started to grow.
That's possible, however, I think it was probably just an extremely large regular tree. Besides, the Great Deku Tree is hardly the only giant tree in Hyrule.
The stump makes me think of the great ancient tree from skyward sword. That's the only "ancient" tree in the series that wasn't a great deku tree so perhaps this could be that tree?
"How can a ranch survive 10000 years? It makes no sense!" ...you know you can just... replace the fence pieces over the years, right? You don't have to just use that same wood for over a millenia.
Just because the Ranch Ruins are there does not mean they've been there for 10,000 years. It's noted that before you wake up 100 years prior Hyrule was doing just fine. It's likely the Lon Lon ranch was still in use and being worked and only came to be destroyed when Calamity Ganon attacked by making use of the Guardians which if you take note the Ranch Ruins are surrounded by a good number of them. Since the wooden structures are still there it's far more plausible to believe it's only been in ruin for 100 years rather than 10,000. This is further supported by the fact that you find various and numerous ruins of towns and villages across Hyrule that were destroyed in the Calamity attack 100 years ago. While some have stone structures alot of them contain *gasp* WOOD and are STILL there from 100 years ago.
Silvertd 159, Yeah your right Mekar Island most likely the old dungeon, I kinda wish it still had the raft near it, what if that tree at Mekar island, was a shrine quest and if you find the opening you enter a shrine. That would be a great Zelda call back
I'm glad somebody mentioned Crenel Hills because I discovered it recently. There are about 7 giant tree stumps in Crenel Hills (just SE of Hyrule Castle), they are almost identical to the ancient tree stump in this video, even with the same sawed off branches and raised outer bark. What's interesting is one of the stumps has a shrine inside it, so these trees were cut down BEFORE the Sheikah built the shrines, meaning they truly are ANCIENT.
David Martin Probably not, Holodrum and Labrynna are different lands but if the timelines collided then who’s to say Termina, Holodrum, and Labrynna aren’t there too...
Vincent L Mine would too. I know GameTheory made a video of an idea that the colliding of the timelines in Hyrule Warriors was actually canon and BotW comes after that which would explain why there’s stuff from all 3 timelines, but those 3 kingdoms are also part of the timelines so she very well could’ve collided them. Someone needs to check if the maps line up
The Lon Lon Ranch ruins are fine by me, who said the farm was abandoned? There are roman roads still used today, 1800 years later. And it isn't too uncommon for children to inherit their parents farms. So the chance is high that the ranch was in use for the majority of time, before ultimately destroyed and abandoned.
Mask: What the heck? Why would you put that there? Markiplier: appears Me, someone who always gets called Discount Markiplier: What the heck? Why would you put that there? ALSO, CAN WE GET MY BRO MASK UP TO 50K TODAY? LET'S MAKE IT HAPPEN, FOLKS!!
I think it’s the wind waker deku tree, maybe not the deku tree in particular but maybe forest haven or an even more better theory, forbidden woods, and makar island is the other! Just my theory I think ancient tree stump is forbidden woods, and makar island is forest haven
Personally, I got the feeling the stump was an Old Deku Tree. We already know it can reproduce, and the koroks being all over Hyrule allows a way to be transported. It wouldn't be crazy to think a group of people come across essentially the corpse of a tree god and use put the material to use.
I used to do treework with my step-dad, and yes, if the tree was too massive to handle by just dropping it whole, or if there were fragile things around it, we actually would take it off chunk by chuck starting from the top
I think this will be a dungeon in the next game. It seems like wherever the sand covers an entrance might be pre-planned for the future and easy to clear areas are likely going to be what they edit most. Trees in the game seem to be a bit more magic so it would explain why some of the 10,000 year old structures survived. I also think rather than going into the dungeon from a collapsed tunnel like other dungeons this one will open from the top of the stump which is why the center looks extra brittle and revealing a root system with possibly more of the underground and a whole dungeon is probably going to be found there. I think instead of relying on Sheikah tech we'll be looking for much older relics to fight Ganondorf like the Gust Jar, hookshots, etc. I also believe the Yiga started out as Lorulian Sheikah; not just because their symbols are upside down but their appearance in Lorule was a direct result to link's wish to restore EVERYTHING to what the world would have been without influence from Ganon. The Triforce wouldn't have a reference for the dark world to be based off of so it created Lorule with the same history of Hyrule but since it couldn't create the goddesses or destroy the darkness in its entirety (which is why you see huge holes of darkness in Lorule and the same monsters as the Dark World) Lorule was formed as a dirty mirror without Goddess bloodlines or influences. No goddesses mean the Sheikah of that world would only have darkness to turn to and would slowly invaded hyrule through malice and turn Sheikah against each other. Which is why the machines were flawed and could be over taken by malice; the elders separated from the Sheikah as a whole instead of fighting along-side them in the Yiga trap so the could pick up the mantle if their prediction came true. BotW also had a habit of slightly altering names (Yuga=Yiga), so while I don't think the current Yiga come from Lorule I think they practice Lorulian magic by studying their hidden history. Hence the scrolls, shapeshifting, and disappearance, which were all Yuga tricks. After all, Yuga somehow knew of Ganon. Also look at what you pass through in Between Worlds it looks like Malice and Magic. The upside down eye matches Lorule's history of reverse imagery as well and might be directly influenced by Yuga's robes.
Ok, but surely the levelling out to make the huge wood processing building thingy would have completed the basin anyway. And you said that the tree would have been huge, huge enough to need a whole lake's worth of water? but then when they cut it down, even though it continued to live, it wouldn't need enough sustenance to drain the entire lake below. Just an idea.
One reason the ranch might still be around, perhaps the family still runs it right up until Miasma Ganon strikes, maybe they attempted to hold it longer and managed to last a bit before having to flee. Those ruins easily might only be 100 years old, or even younger.
The stump has a striking resemblance to a links house in Ocarina. Would make sense for it to be living, as it was in the at that time Kokiri forest, likely still retains that blessing, etc.
A tree that big would probably draw most if not all of the water from the ground and surrounding area. Probably enough to prevent flooding of the hollow it was present in. When the tree eventually died, it probably no longer drew water from the hollow due to it being dead and the base under the tree was washed away from the rain that was no longer being sucked into the tree. Also Lon Lon Ranch, like many companies, could be continued for centuries and the wood could be replaced and the area surrounding terraformed to fit the needs of Hyrule. It doesn't make sense for dead harvested wood from more than 10,000 years ago would be still standing, even holding up heavy items like the broken barrels and occasional stones in the ruins. And what about the Crenel Hills? It's an area full of ancient tree stumps that were completely hollowed out. Also, there is a shrine in the middle of one of the stumps, meaning they were hollowed out before the shrines were built, and those trees really are ancient, dating back to more than 10,000 years old, much older than the one in the video, which was probably a couple hundred years old. Their branches are also cleanly sawed off with no splintering like the one in the video, meaning they were probably harvested for wood in ancient Hyrule. They are also so close together that they could have possibly connected to each other and made an intertwined tree, which isn't rare at all today, and are very wood-heavy. Perhaps an era of giant trees like the island trees in wind waker occurred?
I always assumed that Lon Lon Ranch just kinda... survived all this time until it was destroyed by the Calamity 100 years ago. I mean, Hyrule has been a monarchy with the exact same ruling family for over 10,000 years, so stranger things have happened.
What if... (aimed at the water) the giant tree when living absorbed the high amounts of rainfall... a tree that big would need so much water constantly. Maybe after cutting it down then they realized they had to move because the water was no longer being drained by the now cut tree and abandoned the lumber yard.
The only real life equivalent, the Giant Sequoia, can absorb between 500-800 gallons per day. There are tens of thousands of gallons pooled there. With the tree whole, healthy and absorbing the maximum amount each day, it's possible.
It's a reference for the first dungeon in Zelda 1 for the NES, which was also referenced in Oracle of Seasons. It even got the bridge connecting to the stump
For the lumber jack thing I think they did start to chop it from the top and stuff, but when the guardians went rogue I think they cut it with their lasers,and that’s probably why it’s such a clean cut (also the branch on the stump is in the middle where the lumber jacks couldn’t have cut which probably also means a Guardian also probably cut it with their lasers too) please consider my theory.
He does realize that the ranch could still be there after 10000 years because people take care of ranch's to where they pass them down throughout generations
I think you've over thought this one... before the calamaty, the tree was huge and required the water to grow so great, the tree itself stopped floods. I think the tree was cut down after the calamity as they needed materials to rebuild.
Swing and miss. Tree is meant to be the original Deku Tree, from OoT. Ruins are Kokiri village and subsequent development, and if you look just north west of of the stump is the ruins of the Sages temple, which has Forest Temple vibes. Also, when giant trees die and the roots rot, the surrounding land often sinks into a hole.
I think the crater was created from the collapsing root system as the tree died, and when the tree was alive the root system was absorbing all the water in that area so those buildings would have been above ground and with the tree dead there was nowhere for the water to go water so it pooled into the crater. I love the detail you discovered with the construction sand and how they probably used that side of the crater as their entry point to harvest the tree
It could have been a mega Deku tree with Korok people living in it, visitors and tourists could have come and stayed in the buildings that were in the branches, eventually when the great calamity came the Korok people were forced to leave due to guardians and such. The Korok people moved to a new Deku tree in the Korok Forest and were hidden by the thick fog around them. The Old Deku stayed behind and tried to fight off the guardians who used their laser beam things (not sure what to call them) to decapitate the Old Deku, the Bokogoblins Lizafols and Moblins used the wood from the old Deku to build their bases around Hyrule. The Old Deku would have soaked up all the water that fell into the crater, but now that it was smaller and the inside was dead it no longer needed that much water allowing the crater to fill up. The crater won't fill up all the way because the Deku started regrowing and using more water. The Korok people were safe and happy, they created a new life inside the Deku but this time didn't tell anybody about it for fear of their new home of being destroyed again, although they will always be happy to see visitors if they can make it through the fog. The Old Deku never died just fell into a deep slumber and is slowly starting to awake again.
What's your favorite/the most mysterious landmark in Breath of the Wild's Hyrule? Mine is probably the Ranch Ruins!
Hi bandit!
Probably the akkala citadel and typhlo ruins.
Definitely the Zonai Ruins. I want nothing more than to know more about them in BOTW.
Mine is the castle town. I really want to see what it was like
Hi bandit! Mine is probably Shadow Hamlet Ruins.
A tree that big would also probably help prevent flooding. Imaging how much water the tree would draw from the ground, up the trunk and out of the leaves every day. Probably enough to prevent flooding of the hollow it was present in.
Exactly
Darn you beat me to it, that's exactly my thoughts, how much water does it take to create a tree of such magnitude. I hope he touches up on this in the next video when he talks about what he thinks this tree was.
Yes, agree completely, the tree took up all the water that now is collecting in the pool. Also the ground/ earth surrounding it gives rathervaway, that it is not super solid and stable. I believe the houses and other stuff collapsed into the center towards the tree. The sheer static weight of the tree, plus constant raining and eventually the water gathering up as a pool arround it, must have losened up the soil in the end, creating that crater and collapsing of stuff. I strongly believe that Hylians found that tree and chopped it of and made a settlement/ wood mill factory. Disregarding how they would affect the nature until the place collapsed. I think that this place shows how greedy and egotistical the people have been and paying for their overexploitation.
my thoughts exactly!
Which is why it’s so damn big
"Ganon has returned!!! Good thing we spent 100 years harvesting this tree."
"Covid-19 is here!!! Good thing we spent $10,000 buying toilet paper."
It would have been up to 10,000 years, as the 100 years was Link’s stasis after the Calamity
Balls King twilight paper
You do know that Lon Lon Ranch was probably tended to and remade, remodeled, etc. The ranch, over time, would obviously be ruined, worn, so it would have to be remodeled multiple times. Who says this is the original Lon Lon Ranch?
Ranch of Theseus
My bet is that it is the original but it is obviously upkept by the owners
@@vetlestyve3571 I agree. I meant it as the same location as the original, just different fencing, houses, but maybe the large stone building could be the same. Stone structures, if built a certain way, can last for potentially over a thousand or more years.
Tod add to this, even if they keep the exact same lay out, wood can be replaced and if properly maintained and sealed can last hundreds or even of years (so long enough to at least last from the beginning of the calamity to the actual game events)
(also an example of wood being much more durable than you'd think; there was a ship called the Mary Rose that was completed in 1512 and it went down during a battle in 1545 (so some of it was destroyed) and they discovered its remains in like the 70s and raised it from the seafloor in the 80s and its still around to this day... meaning its over 500 years old. its actually really cool...)
@@NerdySalemSays The reason for the Mary Roses lasting that long was because of very specific conditions that hasn't happened to other ships.
I’m at the point in quarantine where I’m enthralled by a theory video about a fictional stump
I'm at the point to where I'm looking at old gravity falls theories lol
I'm more pathetic, I subscribed to all the Zelda theorists way before the lockdown :D I have no excuse!
SAME!!!!!!
I'd be enthralled during normal times as well. I like these videos. A bit better then NBC's content and I really like NBC as well. Keep it up MNB
@@Kidgib5 I recommend Rinkuto videos (in French but production quality is great and theories are awesome). And Zeltik but he is well known :) (and a few smaller ones as well).
NMB: *talks about lumberjacks*
The Great Deku Tree: *sweats nervously*
Angel Hernandez Vega -
Lumber jacks- don’t worry deku tree it won’t hurt much
Deku tree-*nervous* umm Zelda Please come and get these guy, they making me nervous😬
made me think of the lumberjacks from link to the past before u get the master sword
Read my comment if you enjoy this
So many deku shields......... BUT AT WHAT COST???
The deku tree is dead
The draining system is much obvious: the tree itself.
When fully grown, it would have absorbed all rain water, allowing construction over there
CBZ 1068 which answered why it’s so big
big brain answer, and when they cut it down it didn't need to absorb as much and they flooded.
PingMS and then they probably filled the dent in the ground that felling the giant tree made using construction sand. Lol
and the leaves helped
Your very correct
Waht the stump.
Personally, I think the ancient stump was used as a lookout post for that small village. Because it's in a basin, there was no way for the residents to see possible invaders. The ancient stump was the perfect lookout post, plus there's a house built close to the bridge!
I personally think it's part of the Great Deku Tree family since The Stump if it was a fully grown tree could be as big or at least at a similar height to The Great Deku Tree in BOTW. The only Tree of that size that I've seen at least.
And the houses could mean that people were simply living around The Deku Tree similar to The Kokiri or in BOTW's case, The Koroks
Waht
Has anyone noticed that how on earth is a house made of wood underwater!
Yah but i think it was the old bridge of hilia
The creators of Breathe of the Wild: idk i thought it looks cool so lets put a giant stump
This guy:
Lmfao.
@Craig Adams Exactly.
I think it's more likely the "construction sand" and rubble is evidence of a land slide that caused that building to slip into the lake.
I think that most likely as well.
Yep
My thoughts exactly
Maybe not that exactly, but perhaps it destroyed the primary drainage(if natural evaporation from the tree's leaves wasn't enough). The building(and especially its floor) does look pretty intact for having fallen down a hill.
When trees die the ground around them tends to sink due to root death, we tend not to notice this as they usually fall over. Hope one day we get answers, love this kind of stuff, thank you!
THAT'S WHY THE HOUSES SANK WITH THE TREE
Man, that's interesting
I always thought that the tree was a reference to The Windwaker:
The tree represents the Deku Tree from that game, the thin trees surrounding it represent the Korok, and the house underwater represents the flooded Hyrule.
I thought so too, but the Deku tree is alive and well in BOTW, what surprises me even more is that this stump appears to be almost as big, if not bigger, than the Deku tree
@@RayMora-RaychaelsaurusRex Deku trees can die, like we saw in Ocarina. Maybe the Ancient Tree Stump is a Deku tree corpse!
Nice theory
I thought it was a reference to the one in the very first game
@@char5285 that be great if they put a door and a dungeon that similar to that from LoZ.
I like theories like this. They don't try to theorize about something everyone already knew and theorized about, and it doesn't try to shoehorn it into being related to something else in the franchise. Just the small things, with interesting details and history. I urge you not to talk about how it may be connected to a Deku tree, etc., to keep that bliss and individual quality.
I think that that’s caused in part by the fact that BOTW is so detailed that you can make a story about one small area
The remains of Lon Lon Ranch didn't have to survive thousands of years, only 100 at the least
If you take a broken section of fence down and replace it with a new section that matches the old is it really a new fence? Even after you've done this enough times that the entire fence is made out of new material. I'm thinking that but the entire Ranch
@@lanasmith4795 Theseus's fence. But yeah i agree its not technically the same fence as Ocarina of Time, its just been repaired, replaced, or rebuilt in a near identical layout until 100 years earlier when the inhabitants were killed.
The more mysterious thing is the trees that didn't grow at all in 100 years, looking in the present identically to as they were 100 years earlier in the memories.
@@anialator1000000 omg I never noticed that
@@anialator1000000 that is something that irked me as well.
It could of been Lon Lon ranch was the place the royal family breed their horses (like epona) And over thousands of years, that places purpose was just for that and kept it around. Ezy pzy
The Ancient Tree Stump did always stump me.
Ba dum tiss
No
Yes
Good pun
Today I just realized that there is an area called “Breach of Demise”
Why the heck would this be here?
Btw, it is southeast of the Ridgeland Tower
I watched a video (I cant remember what channel) that said it was the place where demise broke open the earth to call forth his army before skyward sword. Or it was at least named after it.
Demise came from a hole in the ground in skyward sword. Demise was the imprisoned who came from the pit under the peg/stake in the ground in the Faron Woods. That spot was a breach of the seal the goddess put in place to keep him at bay.
Yeah it's super weird that it's there. The part that is interesting isn't the same but the lack of life there.
It’s probably where demise was killed. I don’t know never played skyward sword
Destiny Leonard the peg/stake area in skyward sword isn’t where demise came from. Remember that when demise appeared the great statue of the goddess hylia (and the second part of the sealed temple) used to be where the stake/peg that imprisoned him is so he couldn’t have come out of there
"You've all seen it, we've all seen it"
I didn't even know it existed until this video came up in my recommended
There is a flooded village close to lake Hylia with a significantly larger hollow tree
Sheikuh 7 can u tell me the exact location? I’m having trouble finding it
@@thomaswoodenrailwayjourneys between north east of lake Hylia and north west of the fountain of courage
Is right in front of one of Link's memories
@@thomaswoodenrailwayjourneys It's probably Deya Village they are talking about, if you trek towards the twin peaks from the plateau and take a left just before you reach that mountain you'll end up in Deya Village ruins, it's a shallow lake and there are two giant fallen trees there where most of them have rotted away.
It could be that in ancient times there were lots of huge trees but due to the growing population they cut them down for resources and to make space for more settlements.
Funny thing the ranch ruins are called Lon Lon ranch in german
Yay hollow knight
@Silvertd 159 If you really wanna know, just turn the language in your game to German and check it
@Silvertd 159 try finding it then putting it into google translate
@Silvertd 159 lol same
A couple comments to make:
Regarding the ranch ruins, while not the focus of the video: aside from the Sheikah, over the course of 10,000 years, Hyrule has not advanced at all in technology or anything like that, including architecture. They have the same kinds of buildings now as they did in Skyward Sword. So while in real life, old buildings would get torn down and replaced with more modern ones, its quite possible that Lon Lon Ranch was maintained and rebuilt with the same architecture. Replace old logs and wood fences over time, maintain stone buildings, rebuild anything that is destroyed by disaster or weather. By looks, it would be the exact same thousands of years later. But at its heart, its like the ship paradox. Its the same ranch, but made from new wood and stone and such. Because of a lack of architectural advancements, it just requires the family line to never die out, for the ranch to stay running by new generations all the time. And being in ruins, we can't actually see how much has changed, we just recognize what's the same. A wood fence being there 10,000 years later isn't all that unlikely in a world like Hyrule, as long as you realize that its not the exact same pieces of wood.
As for the lake surrounding the tree: considering the lack of ruins where the sand and rubble blockage is, it seems more likely to me that it was intentional, to dam the water and create a lake, flooding ruins or abandoned structures already there. Why would they do that? Hard to say. But the lack of Guardians and large ruins where the blockage lies suggests it wasn't caused by a building collapsing when the Calamity returned a hundred years ago. Look at other, similar ruined structures for what I mean. Building sand could be there intentionally as a dam as well
Your going to harp of the fact the ranch ruins look like lon lon ranch but just going to ignore the fact that Eventide Island is just Koholint island with the nightmare structures cut off right?
Cuz that seems more ..... significant.
I think that the Ocarina of Time great deku tree was chopped down which left its remains as the Ancient Tree Stump. But, the great deku tree is in the Korok Forest, so that means that it isnt the remains of the great deku tree from OoT. Maybe the trees surrounding the stump was once the Kokiri Forest?
@@stuffz1757 true
@aidangallantyt I don’t think the giant tree is the Great Deku Tree from OoT because, as MNB stated, the giant tree is still somewhat alive, whereas we watch the Great Deku Tree die completely in OoT. But I could be wrong, there could’ve been another or many other GDTs who lived in different areas in Hyrule between the events of the two games, as StuffZ said.
IlluminaBee 33 In the adult time of OoT there is a 2nd deku tree born right in front of the old one
There is a real life phenomenon called forest migration. Where over centuries and millennia, entire forests can migrate from one area to a completely different area. Some studies have shown that a forest can migrate hundreds or thousands of miles over extended periods of time. However, I don't think it likely that the stump is the remains of a Deku tree. The Great Deku Tree may be the single largest, but it is not the only giant tree to be found in Hyrule. I think it most likely that the stump is a giant tree, just not of the Deku variety.
That's obviously The Beanstalk that was cut so the giants wouldn't come down from the clouds and the houses were little Jack relatives waiting for his return.
What if that big tree used to be the great deku tree, and the town in the crater was the old kokiri forest
That was my theory too
same
Yeah I thought of that
The buildings were made of stone. Kokiri live in trees.
Their was sort of a crater around the original deku tree
I just figured the individual parts of the ranch had been replaced over the years as it was a working ranch until the Calamity 100 years ago and not that each fence post was 10,000 years old. But, it's amazing that the developers put construction sand around an old tree to give eagle-eyed gamers and theorists something else to look at and think about. Very interesting video.🙂
I was listening to the song 'Wannabe' when I got the notification for this video, and I was like:
I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna
I really really really wanna watch a new zelda theory
Yep, that's how I look at things.
now that I've seen this video another question came into my mind, did anyone ever cover a theory about how a decu tree "gets born" and if not, could you make one?
I'm ocarina of time, once you become and adult and you revisit the dead great deku tree, there is a baby deku tree next to it. It came from one of the seeds that the tree dropped. So, we can assume that they come from other/previous deku trees. The only problem with this is how do the locations vary between games?
I may be mistaken, however, as I have not played it in a while
@@0live0llie I know about the Decu tree in OoT, but that still leaves the question how the first one came to existence 😅
@@0live0llie I just assume the kokiri and korok take the seed and change location.
@@ringoognir629 Maybe the goddesses created the first the first one?
@@moutray77 That would make sense
What if this is the same giant tree from Skyward Sword?
@@stuffz1757 the Skyview spring is the spring of power, meaning long ago faron woods extended aaaaall the way to akalla. If you look at the actual map of Skyward sword, the skyview temple stands where the akalla region is
@@ZeldaLore i never expected you to be here. I love your Zelda theories and Zelda story-telling keepup the good work
@@Natethegreat-tq4qh i follow all the zelda UA-camrs, you are goung to find me everywhere XD
Loved that you included that scene where Mark raged over "getting over it".
What if you wanted to go to heaven, but God said "What the stump is this??"
I'd love to hear more thoughts on the giant trees! the idea of hylians chopping down a deku tree is morbidly fascinating..?
I really hope we see it grown in BOTW 2
I am no expert on trees, but I don't remember ever having heard or witnessed cut down trees grow. Would be pretty great to see big big trees covering the Hyrule fantasy tho.
Well, it didnt grow, but it is an interesting spot to visit
There are also massive tree stump/trunk remains in other areas of the world. Crenel Hills in particular have a series of hollowed out stumps
Yeah we should get a second theory for this and speculate as to what this massive tree really was and why it stood out from the rest of the surrounding area and its trees.
And also I think there should have been an added detail that because the tree was probably so huge, its large branches and tree limbs stemming from the top probably covered the basin area around it like a massive umbrella, preventing the rainwater from filling up the bowl surface.
I used to think I explored everything in BotW, but watching these videos, I found out that there’s a lot I haven’t even heard of
Same here. I like to watch the video and then go find the area(s) from the video to look for myself and come up with my own thoughts.
Oh idk. MAYBE THE GIANT TREE AND ITS GIANT ROOTS DRANK THE WATER.
I just assumed that the ranch kept existing and being rebuilt more or less the same. It was a functioning business in a good location and assuming there was a new person to hand it down to, be it child or loyal employee or whatever, it could have lasted. That wasn't the same buildings from OOT, they where just rebuilt in the same location whenever they got doo run down or destroyed.
I’ve come up with a conclusion:
You guys are all overthinking this
0:45 yeah bud you are. But it’s a nice reference and flashback for all the long time fans
i love your editing so much lmao, top tier
Me: How do you know those leave come from an aspen tree?
MNB: You can tell because of the way it is
Essay question: *PASSED*
I think it goes back to where you started with "Nintendo threw in all these random landmarks from the past" this is a throwback to the first dungeon in the first game.
But that dungeon had five trees around it that were close to its own size, plus there wasn't a building next to it.
I would love theories on what that tree used to be, looking forward to that video!
Loved this theory! I bet the giant reach of leaves would have also kept the rain out!
the stump really stumped me when I found it
I think that tree is a Maku tree, at Oracle of Seasons, the Maku tree helps Link to restore the seasons back, but then Holodrum is destroyed or flooded then the hylians took it as territory.
Looks like this mystery didn't leave you stumped!
Anyways, keep up the good work. Hope that you're doing well.
Take care!
Couldn’t help but notice the settlement nearby is called “Rauru Settlement Ruins” which meant nothing to me in BOTW but with TOTK it’s making me wonder why it’s named after Rauru.
Maybe its a reference to the great tree in skyward sword. since at one point it was surrounded by water.
I like to imagine that the years on hyrule are shorter than here on earth, beacouse we hadn't even discoverd iron 10000 years ago, it sort of explains the weird timing withing the world of zelda.
I feel like the ancient stump was the original Deku tree
And the deku tree in botw was the sprout from ocarina of time
You figured this out so well this video is so entertaining I was curious about how you can make a 11 minute video about a tree stump. But it was deeper than I thought!
Just wanna say this, when you said the thing that bothered you a lot I thought you meant the weird house under the water not leaves
Edit: OMG MULTIPLE LIKES
I've always wanted a video dedicated to this stump.
i wondered if it was one of the deku tree generations. Given that they have grown in other places with the forest. If maybe in some more recent 10,000 years. One grew there and the forest spirits having developed further with the people. Took a more adult form to blend in and lived with the people to a degree, but when the tree passed. The seed flew or was transported to the deepest thicket of woods that now became the lost woods and the deku's people left. The tree lay dormant for some years. Till as you said people found it and began harvesting it. Or a stray guardian beam sliced through it and the energy of the beam rattled the tree awake and it started to grow.
That's possible, however, I think it was probably just an extremely large regular tree. Besides, the Great Deku Tree is hardly the only giant tree in Hyrule.
@@kingdaniel3519 very true
Yes! I was thinking it was the Great Deku Tree or Ordon Village!
The deku tree was hollow, maybe more grew but were cut down and they eventually lead to the new lost woods
The stump makes me think of the great ancient tree from skyward sword. That's the only "ancient" tree in the series that wasn't a great deku tree so perhaps this could be that tree?
"How can a ranch survive 10000 years? It makes no sense!"
...you know you can just... replace the fence pieces over the years, right? You don't have to just use that same wood for over a millenia.
But then who's replacing the fence and why, did they get killed off recently?
@@Mr.Scott86 descendants? got killed in the calamity?
@@Omnirok12 and why would they replace a fence even though it's so close to the castle
@@Mr.Scott86 why would a ranch not want to have fences?? its farm animal enclosure 101??
@@Omnirok12 and again its 100 years after a calamity how does it still have fences
Just because the Ranch Ruins are there does not mean they've been there for 10,000 years. It's noted that before you wake up 100 years prior Hyrule was doing just fine. It's likely the Lon Lon ranch was still in use and being worked and only came to be destroyed when Calamity Ganon attacked by making use of the Guardians which if you take note the Ranch Ruins are surrounded by a good number of them. Since the wooden structures are still there it's far more plausible to believe it's only been in ruin for 100 years rather than 10,000. This is further supported by the fact that you find various and numerous ruins of towns and villages across Hyrule that were destroyed in the Calamity attack 100 years ago. While some have stone structures alot of them contain *gasp* WOOD and are STILL there from 100 years ago.
I like to think that the tree stump is a old version of the tree dungeon in Zelda 1
Silvertd 159, Yeah your right Mekar Island most likely the old dungeon, I kinda wish it still had the raft near it, what if that tree at Mekar island, was a shrine quest and if you find the opening you enter a shrine. That would be a great Zelda call back
"Who would build structures in an area like this that's so easily flooded? I mean it's almost a perfect bowl."
New Orleans: *sweats*
I came as soon as i got the notification
@aidangallantyt me too
Säme
Hey at Crenel Hills are also remnants of trees that big !
I'm glad somebody mentioned Crenel Hills because I discovered it recently. There are about 7 giant tree stumps in Crenel Hills (just SE of Hyrule Castle), they are almost identical to the ancient tree stump in this video, even with the same sawed off branches and raised outer bark. What's interesting is one of the stumps has a shrine inside it, so these trees were cut down BEFORE the Sheikah built the shrines, meaning they truly are ANCIENT.
The tree was more than huge it was the tree from skyward sword
Never thought about this tbh, very well could be the case but who knows lol.
Kinda mind blowing haha :D
Could it be that this three is the one we see in the oracle games?
David Martin Probably not, Holodrum and Labrynna are different lands but if the timelines collided then who’s to say Termina, Holodrum, and Labrynna aren’t there too...
@@loganhanssler4419 I swear to God, my heart would damn-near stop if the lands to the north, east, & west of BotW's Hyrule were those three kingdoms.
Vincent L Mine would too. I know GameTheory made a video of an idea that the colliding of the timelines in Hyrule Warriors was actually canon and BotW comes after that which would explain why there’s stuff from all 3 timelines, but those 3 kingdoms are also part of the timelines so she very well could’ve collided them. Someone needs to check if the maps line up
The Lon Lon Ranch ruins are fine by me, who said the farm was abandoned? There are roman roads still used today, 1800 years later. And it isn't too uncommon for children to inherit their parents farms. So the chance is high that the ranch was in use for the majority of time, before ultimately destroyed and abandoned.
Mask: What the heck? Why would you put that there?
Markiplier: appears
Me, someone who always gets called Discount Markiplier: What the heck? Why would you put that there?
ALSO, CAN WE GET MY BRO MASK UP TO 50K TODAY? LET'S MAKE IT HAPPEN, FOLKS!!
Discount Markiplier! With that voice, you're not discount anything!
Also thanks man :)
D'aww, just for that, my not-discount voice is always available to assist you, my brother! LOL
I think it’s the wind waker deku tree, maybe not the deku tree in particular but maybe forest haven or an even more better theory, forbidden woods, and makar island is the other! Just my theory I think ancient tree stump is forbidden woods, and makar island is forest haven
Personally, I got the feeling the stump was an Old Deku Tree. We already know it can reproduce, and the koroks being all over Hyrule allows a way to be transported. It wouldn't be crazy to think a group of people come across essentially the corpse of a tree god and use put the material to use.
Hyrule: exists
Ganon : we have a city to burn.
My family: what are you doing up there?!
Me: watching an expert theorize what happened to a giant ancient tree.
My family: he’s so intelligent!
I don't think that's construction sand, I think its dried mud from mudslides over the time because you can find them near every landslide in game.
That's what I think as well. That it was caused by a landslide. I wound't call it sand, it looks like earth that has been disturbed.
Me: *thinking it’s gonna be connected to lore*
Him: “the lumberjacks, built a city here...”
Me: *sighs in disappointment*
I used to do treework with my step-dad, and yes, if the tree was too massive to handle by just dropping it whole, or if there were fragile things around it, we actually would take it off chunk by chuck starting from the top
That thumbnail though. Funniest pun i have ever heard
Don't forget that there is also a massive tree stump and hollowed-out log on the plateau aswell. The one taking part in Champion's Ballad.
I think this will be a dungeon in the next game. It seems like wherever the sand covers an entrance might be pre-planned for the future and easy to clear areas are likely going to be what they edit most. Trees in the game seem to be a bit more magic so it would explain why some of the 10,000 year old structures survived. I also think rather than going into the dungeon from a collapsed tunnel like other dungeons this one will open from the top of the stump which is why the center looks extra brittle and revealing a root system with possibly more of the underground and a whole dungeon is probably going to be found there. I think instead of relying on Sheikah tech we'll be looking for much older relics to fight Ganondorf like the Gust Jar, hookshots, etc. I also believe the Yiga started out as Lorulian Sheikah; not just because their symbols are upside down but their appearance in Lorule was a direct result to link's wish to restore EVERYTHING to what the world would have been without influence from Ganon. The Triforce wouldn't have a reference for the dark world to be based off of so it created Lorule with the same history of Hyrule but since it couldn't create the goddesses or destroy the darkness in its entirety (which is why you see huge holes of darkness in Lorule and the same monsters as the Dark World) Lorule was formed as a dirty mirror without Goddess bloodlines or influences. No goddesses mean the Sheikah of that world would only have darkness to turn to and would slowly invaded hyrule through malice and turn Sheikah against each other. Which is why the machines were flawed and could be over taken by malice; the elders separated from the Sheikah as a whole instead of fighting along-side them in the Yiga trap so the could pick up the mantle if their prediction came true. BotW also had a habit of slightly altering names (Yuga=Yiga), so while I don't think the current Yiga come from Lorule I think they practice Lorulian magic by studying their hidden history. Hence the scrolls, shapeshifting, and disappearance, which were all Yuga tricks. After all, Yuga somehow knew of Ganon. Also look at what you pass through in Between Worlds it looks like Malice and Magic. The upside down eye matches Lorule's history of reverse imagery as well and might be directly influenced by Yuga's robes.
I suspected it was the Great Deku Tree (or maybe the sprout that grows afer completing the Forest Temple) so be great to hear your thoughts on it
Ok, but surely the levelling out to make the huge wood processing building thingy would have completed the basin anyway. And you said that the tree would have been huge, huge enough to need a whole lake's worth of water? but then when they cut it down, even though it continued to live, it wouldn't need enough sustenance to drain the entire lake below.
Just an idea.
Definitely make a theory video on what you believe the tree to be.
One reason the ranch might still be around, perhaps the family still runs it right up until Miasma Ganon strikes, maybe they attempted to hold it longer and managed to last a bit before having to flee. Those ruins easily might only be 100 years old, or even younger.
The stump has a striking resemblance to a links house in Ocarina. Would make sense for it to be living, as it was in the at that time Kokiri forest, likely still retains that blessing, etc.
A tree that big would probably draw most if not all of the water from the ground and surrounding area. Probably enough to prevent flooding of the hollow it was present in. When the tree eventually died, it probably no longer drew water from the hollow due to it being dead and the base under the tree was washed away from the rain that was no longer being sucked into the tree.
Also Lon Lon Ranch, like many companies, could be continued for centuries and the wood could be replaced and the area surrounding terraformed to fit the needs of Hyrule. It doesn't make sense for dead harvested wood from more than 10,000 years ago would be still standing, even holding up heavy items like the broken barrels and occasional stones in the ruins.
And what about the Crenel Hills? It's an area full of ancient tree stumps that were completely hollowed out. Also, there is a shrine in the middle of one of the stumps, meaning they were hollowed out before the shrines were built, and those trees really are ancient, dating back to more than 10,000 years old, much older than the one in the video, which was probably a couple hundred years old. Their branches are also cleanly sawed off with no splintering like the one in the video, meaning they were probably harvested for wood in ancient Hyrule. They are also so close together that they could have possibly connected to each other and made an intertwined tree, which isn't rare at all today, and are very wood-heavy. Perhaps an era of giant trees like the island trees in wind waker occurred?
I always assumed that Lon Lon Ranch just kinda... survived all this time until it was destroyed by the Calamity 100 years ago. I mean, Hyrule has been a monarchy with the exact same ruling family for over 10,000 years, so stranger things have happened.
What if... (aimed at the water) the giant tree when living absorbed the high amounts of rainfall... a tree that big would need so much water constantly. Maybe after cutting it down then they realized they had to move because the water was no longer being drained by the now cut tree and abandoned the lumber yard.
I was thinking the same thing
The only real life equivalent, the Giant Sequoia, can absorb between 500-800 gallons per day. There are tens of thousands of gallons pooled there. With the tree whole, healthy and absorbing the maximum amount each day, it's possible.
It's a reference for the first dungeon in Zelda 1 for the NES, which was also referenced in Oracle of Seasons. It even got the bridge connecting to the stump
I feel like this tree was cut, or at least recut more recently. Those branches growing around the side should be way larger if it was a living stump.
For the lumber jack thing I think they did start to chop it from the top and stuff, but when the guardians went rogue I think they cut it with their lasers,and that’s probably why it’s such a clean cut (also the branch on the stump is in the middle where the lumber jacks couldn’t have cut which probably also means a Guardian also probably cut it with their lasers too) please consider my theory.
You forgot about the Erosion of the land
Definitely wanted to hear what you thought it was! Future video please
He does realize that the ranch could still be there after 10000 years because people take care of ranch's to where they pass them down throughout generations
Stump that sticks out to me the most is Link To The Past the Spirit Playing The Flute In the circle wooded area.
I think you've over thought this one... before the calamaty, the tree was huge and required the water to grow so great, the tree itself stopped floods. I think the tree was cut down after the calamity as they needed materials to rebuild.
Swing and miss. Tree is meant to be the original Deku Tree, from OoT. Ruins are Kokiri village and subsequent development, and if you look just north west of of the stump is the ruins of the Sages temple, which has Forest Temple vibes. Also, when giant trees die and the roots rot, the surrounding land often sinks into a hole.
I think the crater was created from the collapsing root system as the tree died, and when the tree was alive the root system was absorbing all the water in that area so those buildings would have been above ground and with the tree dead there was nowhere for the water to go water so it pooled into the crater. I love the detail you discovered with the construction sand and how they probably used that side of the crater as their entry point to harvest the tree
I cannot even begin to imagine cutting down that tree being productive. Imagine trying to turn it into planks
This theory makes so much sense
I had huge Lake Hylia vibes from OoT
It could have been a mega Deku tree with Korok people living in it, visitors and tourists could have come and stayed in the buildings that were in the branches, eventually when the great calamity came the Korok people were forced to leave due to guardians and such. The Korok people moved to a new Deku tree in the Korok Forest and were hidden by the thick fog around them. The Old Deku stayed behind and tried to fight off the guardians who used their laser beam things (not sure what to call them) to decapitate the Old Deku, the Bokogoblins Lizafols and Moblins used the wood from the old Deku to build their bases around Hyrule. The Old Deku would have soaked up all the water that fell into the crater, but now that it was smaller and the inside was dead it no longer needed that much water allowing the crater to fill up. The crater won't fill up all the way because the Deku started regrowing and using more water. The Korok people were safe and happy, they created a new life inside the Deku but this time didn't tell anybody about it for fear of their new home of being destroyed again, although they will always be happy to see visitors if they can make it through the fog. The Old Deku never died just fell into a deep slumber and is slowly starting to awake again.
As for the ranch ruins I'm going to go with ship of Theseus
A live tree of that size would absorb a significant amount of water.